From left: Kenneth Drucker, senior principal and director of design in HOK’s New York office, renderings of the Urban League Empowerment Center in Harlem and Hudson principal David Kramer

Hudson Companies is tapping HOK Architects to design the new $225 million Urban League Empowerment Center in Harlem, the developer’s principal, David Kramer, told The Real Deal. HOK has released an additional rendering of the massive glass-walled facility, which towers above the area’s other structures, with three large garden terraces. [more]

Hudson’s David Kramer and 626 Flatbush Avenue

Hudson Companies, the development firm behind the Riverwalk neighborhood in Roosevelt Island, is keeping a hand in the game in Brooklyn. The company, which previously developed projects such as Third + Bond and the J Condominium at 100 Jay Street, has filed plans to build a 254-unit mixed-use building at 626 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, according to Department of Buildings records. [more]

It must have been a very bad dream, which lasted the entire year. Yet
it actually happened: little or no activity took place in commercial
real estate in 2009. For those investment sales brokers who were so busy in 2006 and 2007
making mucho dinero, 2009 was a time to travel to Bora Bora for a
vacation since business was nonexistent. A leading sales broker, who preferred to remain anonymous, shared his struggle over the past year. “I was lucky,” he said. “I had one sale during the year. It was the
sale of a retail condominium in the Village. Two years ago I was the
broker of the year at my firm and now I have enough to pay for
Starbucks.” Another senior investment broker didn’t sound any more optimistic. … [more]

With the Federal Housing Administration struggling to meet its reserve fund regulations, city developers were holding their breath, hoping that the organization, which allows apartment buyers to put as little as 3.5 percent down, would continue to back loans. The organization’s troubles have shed new light on the importance of FHA, which some city developers say has become integral to the financial security of the condo business. “If you asked me about FHA a few years ago, I would have looked at you funny,” David Kramer, principal of the Hudson Companies, the developer of FHA-approved condominium Third + Bond in Carroll Gardens, said. “Now we have gotten involved in making sure that as many financing options as possible are available for buyers, and that is where FHA comes into play.” In the wake of the FHA’s financial woes, regulators have chosen to actually loosen standards, Crain’s reported, with condos needing just 30 percent of units pre-sold, as opposed to 50 percent, to qualify for FHA as of Dec. 7.